by David Baddiel (Author)
The new novel from David Baddiel, comedian, columnist and author of the critically-praised The Secret Purposes.
In New York's Mt. Sinai hospital, the world's greatest living writer, Eli Gold, is dying. Witnessing his death are his precocious 8-year-old daughter by his present (fifth) wife, his anxiety-ridden 44-year-old son from his third marriage, and his 89-year-old first wife, watching on TV from a care home in London. And also, secretly, his fourth wife's fundamentalist Mormon brother, who has never got over his sister's death in a suicide pact with Eli, a suicide pact that he, Eli, survived.
The Death of Eli Gold is a comedy, a thriller, and a meditation on love, death, aging, sex, fame, and the idea - the dying idea - of The Great Man.
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 416
Publisher: Fourth Estate
Published: 03 Mar 2011
ISBN 10: 0007270836
ISBN 13: 9780007270835
Praise for The Secret Purposes:
'Page-turning, cleverly constructed ... an entertaining book' GUARDIAN
'A satisfying, brave novel' OBSERVER
'An intriguing novel about history and truth ... The intelligence and inquiry of this book will surprise many' THE TIMES
'Wonderful ... brilliantly realised' INDEPENDENT
'It is a sombre, clever book, but, being Baddiel, is irradiated by flashes of dark humour' Sally Vickers, SPECTATOR
David Baddiel has written and performed in a series of highly successful comedy shows on British TV, including The Mary Whitehouse Experience, Fantasy Football and Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned. In 1993, he became the first comedian to perform at Wembley Arena. For five years, he had a books column in The Times. He wrote the hit film The Infidel, and is the author of three previous novels: Time for Bed, Whatever Love Means and The Secret Purposes. He lives in London. was born in 1964 in Troy, New York, but grew up and lives in London.